The competitiveness of
nations has been measured on several matrices, with economic growth and
development as the core measure. This is crucial as it directly impacts society’s
quality of life. Nations have added new variables to these matrices, some of which have tracked and benchmarked indices to create acceptable thresholds defining investor confidence. What has been occupying the investor
community's attention and growing into a national balance sheet matter is the
reputation capital of a nation. This, despite its intangible character, has
been able to be reduced to numbers and ratios.
Countries
are destinations of human-valued activities and assets. How a country conducts
itself is a source of how humanity will judge its relationship with citizens
and the enforceability of the law. The credibility of the state and its
agencies is a modern-day business issue. Ethical people who want to do business
with a country would want to interact and transact with societies that fit
their values; they will leave an evil society.
In
the current world order, where countries are viewed as corporate entities with
political sovereignty, the reputation of a nation has become a valuable asset.
The task of maintaining a sterling reputation has now become a significant
challenge for national leadership. This intangible yet fragile asset is crucial
for sustaining global perception and fostering sound international relations
and cooperation. The reluctance to acknowledge the importance of ethics is a
refusal to accept the truth that the citizens of a country, whether at home or
abroad, are its moral agents. Their character and integrity are among the most
fundamental determinants of their attractiveness as investment and tourist
destinations.
The
standards of a rules-based order, respect and honouring of contracts,
availability and affordability of human competence, public policy certainty and
political stability, guaranteeing of the cardinal human freedoms found in
standard Bills of Rights, and a reliable and functioning public infrastructure
have become key components of a sterling national reputation. The level of
character and integrity of a nation's leadership, political or otherwise, is a
complexity whose poor management can generate a reputation crisis for a
country. As a social return to capital, voters' behaviour can significantly
impact a nation's reputational capital.
The
depth at which a country is integrated into the international financial system
determines how much its economic system can survive. This has implications for
inflation and, by extension, its monetary policy, which determines how its
financial system insulates or protects its citizens against global trade
shocks. The truism that a nation's reputation is built on the character of its
leadership across the board and that character is a function of integrity and
fair play, societies' citizen integrity management systems have become
nonnegotiable in how countries are rated. The impact of political decisions on
a nation's reputation and economic stability is significant, as it determines
how much its economic system can survive and how its financial system insulates
or otherwise protects its citizens against global trade shocks.
Other
sovereign publics hold countries to the same legal and ethical standards as
they do to individuals. The sovereignty of individuals has subjugated that of
nations in matters of integrity management and, by default, reputation. This
has made patriotism move beyond the realm of a national ritual but a collective
awareness that should emerge from an expanded perspective of politics,
economics, and civility. Organs of state and business enterprises ought to
serve humanity, not vice versa. The decision to transition South
Africa from an absolute majority party-governed state to a multiparty and
coalition-governed democratic order through a Government of National Unity will
be recorded in history as one of the most creative ways to manage RSA's
sovereign reputation.
The
GNU has become a technology with which soft factors such as culture, trust,
integrity, dignity, fair dealings and favourable attitude could be considered
as politicians sweating out their battles for state power and the prize of
politics and government, how the country has or could have reacted to the taste
of being in a political dispensation with any of the political parties having an
absolute majority, has had an impact of RSA's net reputational capital. The
behaviour of voters during the past election is a social return to capital. The
private sector is now obliged to start seeing a surplus, with which it can begin
to invest in RSA's productive capacity, especially in the manufacturing and
beneficiation of mineral resources.
In their individual capacity, RSA political parties have received a warning from voters that we are ready as a society to dissociate with political brands with a reputation that generates a corresponding loss of trust and credibility in us as a sovereign nation. For now, being associated with the government of national and provincial unity, and we want to believe it will be extended to local unity, has parallel intangible and economic benefits.
What is certain is that,
in RSA, no political party will be able to call the shots in our politics as
much as some did in the past. A ‘cloud’ of new political players has replaced
the centre, each with a proven mandate and power to shape political or
governmental outcomes, but none with enough power to unilaterally determine
them. The reputational returns of our votes should give us good governance; we
dare not fail. CUT!!!
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